Imperfections
by Koka Kola Veins
Summary: Azula always thought that impossible was just a word for things she hadn't tried yet. She mastered lightning, conquered Ba Sing Se, slew the Avatar and thwarted an invasion by the age of fourteen. But her latest obstacle just may be insurmountable. Tyzula. Five years after The Search.
1. Prologue and The Reveal

A/N:My contribution to the Tyzula!Baby thing. This is largely about Azula confronting herself, and her growing relationship with her brother, Mai, Ty Lee and others in her life. So, Azula redemption with some twists. There's a little bit of intense action at parts, fight scenes, etc, but it largely is romance, drama and feels based.

The pairing is Azula/Ty Lee of course. All the way. Also Mai/Zuko and Mai/Jun.

It will go up to M after the baby is born and I want to put in lemons. Possibly earlier for dark themes.

It's outlined to 27 chapters.

* * *

><p>[first trimester]<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Prologue ─ Congratulations<strong>

Mai has found her. It has taken three months but she has finally found her. The decision to take off after Azula was a wise one, in Mai's opinion. It has been five years since she was last seen, and Mai had been trying to find purpose and aim in her life. She had lost it in the war and never regained it. Azula was a purpose once in one way, and she became a purpose again.

She does not need the reward money, but she will take satisfaction in capturing her. Not out of hatred; Mai harbors no resentment for Azula. However, the chase is thrilling. Mai was a soldier and she feels itchy and out of place in a world that is at peace. So interrogating shady guys in bars and tracking prey... well, Mai cannot pass that up.

Azula is in an inn in the distant Fire Nation, and Mai has only just returned from a dry lead in the Earth Kingdom. Mai got a tip from _her father _of all people that he had aided Azula when she came to him, but when Mai asked, he said he had more loyalty to his daughter than Azula. Which surprised Mai in a number of ways, given his involvement with the New Ozai Society and how _close _he was with Ozai. But she took the information, and when she arrives it is correct.

Princess Azula is in front of Mai, and they have just torn up an entire hotel hallway in a fight.

The princess is breathing heavily after the clash, looking surprisingly out of practice for a fugitive. Mai has a nasty burn that hurts terribly, but she continues her pursuit.

"Mai," Azula says, spinning from the door with both hands ablaze with bright blue, "I'm pregnant."

"Congratulations," Mai says dryly before a knife collides with Azula's shirt and pins her to the wall. "I'm sure you'll be a fantastic mother."

Azula gives up the fight, to Mai's surprise. It is likely a trap, Mai thinks, before she approaches Azula and the princess simply slumps. She does not kick up a vivid cerulean flame or do anything else risky. The fugitive simply leans against the wall, breathes out a sigh of what seems like relief, and holds out her wrists.

"Are you... giving in?" Mai asks, examining the handcuffs in her hands. This feels _off_.

"Something like that," Azula purrs, attempting a shrug but stopping halfway through as her shoulders brush against steel knives.

"Oh, well... okay."

* * *

><p>"I'm turning myself in," Azula says as Zuko's eyes move from Mai, who has not seen in a long, long while, to Azula, who he was expecting to see even <em>less<em>.

"For what?" Zuko asks, stepping down from the throne. The fire remains lit as he walks towards her.

She looks ill and he thinks for a moment she has contracted something fatal and that is why she came home. Her eyes still look... wild. They used to be steely, calculated and cold. But now they burn and constantly watch the exits of the room.

Zuko... may be responsible for some of that.

"I'm pregnant," Azula says and Zuko is as shocked by the news as he is by her openness.

Of course Azula is trying to play her tiles right and keep the upper hand. She knows that Zuko has always tried to reach out to her, always tried to break down her walls. They loved each other once, and when Zuko came home to the Fire Nation, despite the animosity sparked by their father, Zuko tried to be close to her again.

Azula can only hope that he will be weak again. She used to play the game years ahead, carefully plotting each move. But now she plays the game of manipulation to live another day.

Live another day as the embryo inside of her grows.

"That's, uh, congratulations, maybe?" Zuko is stunned and his chest hurts.

Mai said she found Azula. She sent the letter, but Zuko could not believe it then, and he struggles to believe it now. She feels almost like a ghost, or some apparition that could fade at any moment.

"I'm really tired of running," Azula says, mostly a lie. Mostly.

"Well, I was getting kind of tired of looking for you," Zuko responds, trying to make this situation less uncomfortable.

"You were always so bad at hide and seek. And, hopefully you'll see this honesty as a show of good faith; that time I told you that you were such a good hider, I really didn't even look for you. I just wanted to see how long it would take for you to give up," Azula remarks and her tone is slightly more purring, slightly more calm.

Zuko is still Zuko. Azula thinks she is playing well enough to live another day.

"I kind of figured." Zuko offers a smile hesitantly.

Azula does not smile back, but he thinks it is still an improvement from last he saw her.

Zuko turns to Mai, "Do you want to be paid?"

"I am so rich, Zuko. I don't even understand how much the bounty is. But, I _would _kind of like to borrow one of your guest rooms," Mai says and she sees Zuko's eyes light with hope. Her gut churns. She is doing it for Azula and not him, but she supposes she can let him believe in the past.

But you only know you've stopped loving someone when you're more in love with the memories in your mind than the person in front of you.

"I want to wash my hair," Azula says and Zuko figured that would be on her list. "Well, _I _don't want to do it. That's the point."

"You do understand I'm going to have to surround you with an armed guard and you're not allowed to leave the palace," Zuko says and Azula only nods.

"As long as you don't send me back to that asylum, I'll refrain from going on any bloody rampages," Azula says, bowing her head. It is mockery and not respect, but Zuko is in far too much shock to do anything about it.

"I'll keep that in mind."

And so, a very strange family is born. Mai plays the game to try to find a purpose in her life, Zuko plays to try to redeem his sister and reclaim the time in which they were happy, and Azula plays to live another day.

But the baby... that is the unpredictable element.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter One ─ The Reveal<strong>

* * *

><p>Azula has no desire at all to inform people that she is pregnant. It is secured and certain that she is officially in her first trimester of something revolting and terrifying. When Zuko offered for her to get out of it, she turned him down because somewhere, inside of her was a twisted longing for this, as if it could give her purpose or something to cling to.<p>

She came easily when she was caught, not because she had given up, but because by the time she found out, she had already decided she wanted the child, or monster, or whatever is lurking silently inside of her. Zuko's suspicion still has not faded, because Azula turning herself in to the Fire Nation because she wants a _baby _is possibly the most implausible thing his sister has ever suggested.

"You have to tell people eventually," Mai sighs, studying Azula closely. She has grown close once more to her old friend, finding that she has changed a good deal in her five years of being untraceable. It made sense that Mai was the one to find her in the end, because Mai made it her purpose one year before, and she knew Azula far better than anyone Zuko sent after her.

"I don't want to," Azula says with all of the grace of a spurned toddler.

"Are you going to tell Ty Lee?" Mai asks and Azula purses her lips. That is one thing that has crossed her mind far too often.

"It isn't like she would harbor any romantic feelings for me anymore. It's been way too long," Azula replies sharply, and it was not what Mai intended, but she goes along with it regardless.

"I didn't mean for you to demand she be your baby's mother or something. She's your friend. Our friend. Plus she will probably have the most positive reaction out of everyone," Mai offers and Azula rubs her lips together. Mai has a point about the pleasant reaction thing; there is no way Ty Lee would not be thrilled that Azula is having a baby. "She loves babies."

"She _will _probably love it," Azula remarks with a sigh, studying her fingernails. She groans and realizes she will have to start somewhere. "I'll write to her."

Azula tosses and turns after writing her letter. It makes sense to start with Ty Lee, and Azula is trying to get a handle on a new life. It is not easy at all. She wakes up every night drenched in sweat and sometimes damp with tears. Her throat aches all the time. And the symptoms of her pregnancy are slowing setting in and terrifying her.

She has not forgiven Mai or Ty Lee, nor will she ever trust them again. But it has been a long time, and she needs allies. Zuko is trying his best to be _supportive_, but last time he was _supportive _she wound up in a straitjacket so she trusts him even less than Mai.

Azula is alone. Pregnant and alone, and she turned herself in solely because of those two aspects of her life. She chews on her fingernails and stares at the window. Her skin is itchy and she refrains from clawing at it and instead stands up and tears all of the bedding from her bed.

She stares at it, realizing she has no idea how to put it back on, and simply lies down on the bare mattress. She is no less itchy. Ugh. Just angry, and now sweating in the abhorrent heat of this endless summer.

Ty Lee is not something Azula wants to dig up. If she weren't playing the game of keeping Zuko convinced she is trying to _redeem _herself, and trying not to arouse suspicion, she would never have written the letter. She struggled with it, even though she has always been as good with words as she is with fire.

Her fingers are sore like they are after training for endless hours to try to _numb _herself. Numb is the state Azula is actively trying to achieve. It is so much easier.

This mess is not easy to get out of. She is a prisoner, she has to please her enemies and those who betrayed her if she does not want to be locked up for life in a prison or asylum, _and _now she is supposed to come face to face with her ex-girlfriend and tell her that she is knocked up.

_And _has no idea who the father is.

How glorious. Oh, Princess Azula, you outdo yourself every day with your majesty.

She spends the night on the bathroom floor after hurling up what felt like most of her internal organs.

* * *

><p>Ty Lee arrives at a speed Zuko and Mai are startled by, given her constant excuses for not coming to visit. She took the first ship she could get on, and Mai wonders exactly what Azula put in that letter.<p>

And, on top of being surprising punctual, Ty Lee is overly excited. She hugs Azula and Mai so tightly they cannot breathe, and she puts behind her everything that has come to pass between she and Azula. Ty Lee neglects mentioning anything; Azula being gone without a trace, the asylum, the Boiling Rock. And Azula is greatly relieved to have such a shallow person around who is not picking apart Azula's every motion and decision.

Azula has been dancing on thin ice for over a month now, and it is starting to wear on her. She chews through pillows in her sleep and peels her lips to bloody bits. Azula resented the idea of Ty Lee until she realized that Ty Lee is too trusting and shallow to give Azula the eyes that everyone else does. It feels nice, almost.

"I'm _so _happy to see you both!" Ty Lee cheers, hugging Azula again. She lingers because of the rush of heat, because Azual feels the same after all of this time. Breathing her in, it is easy to forget and to crave her again. But she knows it has been a long time, and the feelings must be dead by now. They _should _be dead by now. And when she does breathe her in, she smells different.

Azula looks at Ty Lee's eyes cautiously, wondering what she could be thinking. Likely not something very deep or threatening, but Azula cannot help but wonder hopelessly. Ty Lee was a weakness; Ozai told his daughter directly that Ty Lee was a weakness. And Azula fears, deep inside of herself, that Ty Lee still is.

"We should have tea!" Ty Lee hesitates, seeming to be thinking for a moment. "Well, after I put my bags away, I guess!"

She is gone like a hummingbird-dragon and Azula does not know what to make of it.

"You love that ass," Mai remarks, looking Azula up and down and finally resting her gaze on Azula's eyes.

"I was not _ogling _her, Mai," Azula snaps tenaciously and Mai holds up her hands in surrender. She completely was but Mai is not one to argue. "I'm just bracing myself."

"Bracing yourself by checking out her ass," Mai adds and Azula rolls her eyes, not dignifying her best friend with a response. "Oh, come on. It's not like your feelings just magically died. You two have loved each other _forever_. You don't sometimes just think about what her lips taste like?"

"I hate you and I'm not answering that," Azula replies childishly and Mai simply shrugs, slowly shaking her head. They will be together by the end of the night and Mai is certain of it.

The tea is set up by a variety of servants. Mai is less than enthused, but she sips her tea and toys with a variety of snacks without eating them. Azula feels incredibly nauseated and hopes sincerely that she does not throw up all over the table. Ty Lee is pouring an inhuman amount of sugar into her white cup.

They have not changed that much, despite being twenty-one years old and everything that has come to pass between them.

"Do you have something you want to tell Ty Lee, Azula?" Mai inquires, raising an eyebrow. Azula feels even more queasy. Ty Lee smiles and waits so pleasantly that Azula nearly takes her teacup and throws it across the room, imagining it colliding with Ty Lee's face.

But she does not. Azula has not caused much property damage to the palace since she surrendered, and that has terrified Zuko and the servants. Even before Azula raved and ranted and burned and smashed things and then sobbed in the fetal position, she liked to destroy. But now Azula is very careful, very quiet, and clearly conniving for something.

Or maybe she is just trying to survive.

Azula simply takes a deep breath, calming her thoughts of violence, and says, "I'm pregnant."

Ty Lee cannot register it at first. But then, with a small breath, she realizes. "Oh, that's good."

Azula catches the small hint of _envy _in her eyes. The more rational part of her knows it is probably because Ty Lee wants to have a baby. But the other part of her hopes that it is because Ty Lee is jealous that Azula clearly slept with someone to conceive it.

"So, is the father around?" Ty Lee asks and Azula has this sick flicker of hope in her stomach. And it angers her, because she should be long, long over her first teenage crush.

"I don't actually know who he is," Azula says honestly, but Ty Lee is sure she is lying.

"So, how did you wind up back here?" Ty Lee asks, although she was informed the moment Azula was returned. Zuko told everyone, seeing as he had a bounty on her head that could purchase several nations.

"Mai tracked me down to the ends of the Earth."

"We destroyed a hotel."

Ty Lee says slowly, "So you're friends again?"

And Mai replies, "I feel like, she threw me in prison, and I escorted her to the asylum she was locked in. She tried to hit me with lightning, I nearly stabbed her through the face before she told me she was pregnant. I think we're even for now."

"I tried to make her sign a legal document assuring me of that," Azula sighs, a small smirk on her weary lips.

"I didn't agree," Mai continues and Ty Lee feels knots of jealousy in her stomach.

She always was envious of Mai and Azula's relationship. And part of her had hoped they still violently loathed each other for what happened at the Boiling Rock. But give them two months together and suddenly they are best friends again.

And Ty Lee is just sitting here, feeling stupid in her street make-up that barely covers up the stains from her work make-up, looking at a cup of tea and realizing she is on the outskirts. Realizing that she had deep down, hoped Azula had simply vanished like Zuko feared. And that makes her feel like a despicable person.

"Do you want to stay for a while?" Azula asks and Ty Lee cannot tell if it is a formality or a genuine invitation.

Azula feels strange to her. She smells different too. Everything about her is different. The way she behaves is... and her eyes look like a caged animal... and while her voice is beautiful and reminds Ty Lee or burning icicles, she sounds perpetually like she is trying to schmooze people. It feels like someone just snatched Azula and replaced the body of a goddess with a scared little girl who is trying to act like an adult.

"I'd like to. I can visit my family and, uh, catch up on things," Ty Lee says and Azula narrows her eyes and looks like herself for a moment. Analytical, cold. Ty Lee chews on her lip and puts more sugar in her tea.

Things are strange in the Fire Nation.

* * *

><p>"Hey," Zuko says, realizing Ty Lee arrived two days ago and he has still not acknowledged her.<p>

They never were close. He barely knows anything about her, but that is mostly because, despite how much she likes everything to revolve around her, she says very little about herself. In fact, she says very little that matters or interests Zuko.

"Hi," Ty Lee says in a painfully pitchy tone. She is intently studying a portrait, which leads Zuko to believe she is feeling very uncomfortable and likely wants to go home.

"How's being back in the Fire Nation? You know, I haven't seen you back here in five years. Even though your whole family is here," Zuko says, standing beside her to gaze at the portrait. It is of a Fire Lord Zuko cannot recall the name of; he must not have done much.

"I don't get along that well with my family. If that isn't obvious from my running away multiple times then moving across the ocean from them," Ty Lee replies lightly, still staring at the portrait. "Does Azula seem different to you?"

"Not really. Well, define different," Zuko says and Ty Lee hesitates. It takes a long time for her to respond and so Zuko says, "She's different from when we were kids, when we were teenagers and when she was kind of... raving? Raving is a good word for that. But she's still Azula. She still makes servants cry and likes to be scathing and... yeah."

"She looks scared, Zuko. I've never seen her so scared." Ty Lee suddenly does not sound ditzy and sweet; her voice is dark and close to hollow. Zuko feels his insides twisting.

"I've been trying to make her feel comfortable. I promised─"

"You know what? You can't just _redeem _her like she's some kind of charity case! She is this unstoppable force and now she's ─ she's ─ you can't force people to change! You can't erase her, Zuko!" Ty Lee shrieks before looking stunned at herself. Her fingers gently touch her lips as she frowns. "I'm sorry. I'm just feeling tense being back here. There's a reason I avoid the Fire Nation."

"You really think that?" says a voice that is not Zuko's as he opens his mouth to speak.

"Yeah," Ty Lee says as Azula makes herself fully visible. She moves through the light from down the hall, like something stepping into this world from another. But when she is in the dim lamps of this hallway, she looks frail and small. Small. Ty Lee has never seen Azula looks so small and it makes her so angry.

_It is three weeks before the Day of Black Sun and Ty Lee is in her pale pink underclothes with her cheeks flushed and Azula in a virulent rage._

_"You are in love with this idea of me," Azula snaps, leaning against the wall of her bedroom. "You don't know me. You know nothing about me."_

_ Ty Lee can only swallow. She feels very exposed, half dressed. Azula just snapped as they were lying there peacefully. And Ty Lee had the nerve to ask if they had a future together, after the war. _

_ "Azula, I love the real you."_

_ "You have no idea what the real me is. And you never will."_

_ Ty Lee studies her feet. Azula twists her lip to stop it from trembling. No one will see her cry. Maybe that's why no one knows her._

"We left off pretty badly," Azula says, walking to stand beside her brother.

For the first time, he does not seem to fall in her shadow. And Ty Lee is revolted and scared. She does not know how to feel because she wanted Azula to be stopped and reeled in, but she did not want it to look like this. Or, at least, she did not want to have to look at it.

"That's an understatement," Ty Lee says as Zuko fades into the walls.

"And I didn't ever treat you with any form of respect," Azula continues and Ty Lee wants to stop her. She knows that Azula is forcing the words because they are what people want to hear. She knows that even though Azula no longer looks and plays the part of a military mastermind, she still is pushing those around her like little stone pieces on a war table.

It just doesn't look like it anymore.

"I didn't treat me with respect either. We were teenagers and we're adults now. And I would be honored to be your baby's aunt," Ty Lee says and Azula feels a small sting at how Ty Lee discreetly made it clear that the romance is over.

"I appreciate that," Azula says. "How long are you staying?"

"Nine months," Ty Lee replies and Zuko looks aghast and Azula looks as shocked as she did at the Boiling Rock. "I'm not leaving until that baby is born. You're stuck with me for a while."

"Okay," Zuko says quietly, unsure how to decline. He knows he probably should tell her to not make this reckless decision, but he also knows that it is _her _decision in the end.

"Great. It's settled then," Ty Lee says, grinning with her wide eyes sparkling in the lamplight.

"How interesting," Azula breathes, and Ty Lee knows that if she weren't playing the part of the defeated princess, she would have just said something devastatingly cruel.

Ty Lee smiles at her.

Azula's lip twitches as she tries to force one in response.


	2. Iria From the Colonies

**Chapter Two ─ Iria from the Colonies**

* * *

><p>Ty Lee walks into the library of the palace and finds Azula. She imagined she would be here and she was right; Ty Lee did not even need to try Azula's other haunts. The princess is wearing a camisole and a faded bathrobe. Her hair is not brushed and she is flipping through scrolls with disinterest.<p>

Likely hiding from Zuko and Mai. Zuko says she avoids him because he tries to make steps towards redeeming her, as she promised she would do in exchange for amnesty. It simply reminds Ty Lee of how entitled Azula is to want her amnesty but not feel the need to pay for it.

"Do you have any idea who the father of your baby is?" Ty Lee inquires, sitting down across from Azula. The princess sips her ice cold tea and tries to think of a good answer. She does not need this right now, but she is trying to figure Ty Lee out.

A tiny bit of honesty can go a very, very long way, in Azula's mind. And so she decides to answer the question and see where it takes her.

"Yeah. I do," Azula admits and Ty Lee is startled. Her rotund eyes flicker in surprise with a slight sparkle that Azula almost missed. "Not entirely. I got what I wanted in a lot of ways and sleeping with people was one of them. It's effective."

"So it's just some guy's?" Ty Lee inquires and Azula picks at her nails. She feels as if she is on trial; Zuko made her feel that way when he asked her so many prying questions. But she made him shut up. Azula, however, does not have that power over Ty Lee.

"There was one guy I thought about marrying." And then Ty Lee looks deeply offended. Likely because they had this hilarious notion of secretly getting hitched and no one would ever have to know, seeing as Ozai likely would not have allowed the wedding. "Just to fit in with people. Nobody would notice me at that point. Even in the Fire Nation where he was. His name was... unimportant."

"Unimportant? I'm not going to hunt him down and rip his heart out." Ty Lee smirks and Azula raises an eyebrow.

"I would tear the heart out of somebody who knocked you up and was going to marry you." Silence. Ty Lee was hoping Azula would not respond with something like that. The relationship has been over for a long, long time and Ty Lee knows that starting it again would be trouble.

"So, this guy...?" Ty Lee attempts to change the subject and Azula accepts the gesture.

"See, I wanted to marry him and live this lie, this life of some middle class Fire Nation girl named Iria. It would've been highly effective. I've lived a lot of lies and enjoyed it, but the thing is, I'm not some middle class Fire Nation girl named Iria. I'm Princess Azula. And even if I married him in some cheap Fire Sage temple on a dirt road and picked out what shade of red curtains I wanted and drank cheap liquor and made friends who I got tea with... I'd be Princess Azula. I can't live in that world easily. Iria from the Colonies was a little worker mothwasp. Princess Azula, daughter of Fire Lord Ozai, is a killer mothwasp."

Ty Lee is silent. Azula's speeches always do leave her speechless. Each word is so articulate, so well thought out. When Ty Lee last saw Azula, she was far less articulate and her words were nowhere near pretty. So much has changed.

To Ty Lee, she might as well be Iria from the Colonies in Azula's body.

"And it's his baby?" Ty Lee asks softly and Azula shrugs.

"Possibly. I had just left him when Mai tracked me down. That's why I surrendered so easily. At our wedding rehearsal, I realized I was Princess Azula, not Iria from the Colonies. And so I ran away. I don't fit in those mothwasp hives. I just don't. The only place I'm ever going to be able to handle is this palace." She wrestles with her lips for a moment as Ty Lee watches her patiently, waiting for more words. "Even if it's run by my brother."

"So he wants to redeem you?" Ty Lee asks, not wanting to talk about the baby anymore. It enrages her for reasons she does not understand nor does she _want _to understand.

"He's been trying. It's kind of cute," Azula says with a killer smirk. Maybe she is not Iria from the Colonies. "It's not going to work. A tiger monkey cannot change its stripes, after all. No matter how much ZuZu tries. But I have to play along if I want to stay in the palace and not prison or an asylum."

"You've been doing better mentally?" Ty Lee asks before feeling ridiculous. She led into this asking who the father of Azula's bastard child was, and now she is questioning her about her mental health. She probably should have remarked on the weather or complimented Azula's camisole.

"No," Azula admits and Ty Lee feels disgruntled by her honesty. "Not at all. I still wake up screaming most nights. Sweaty. Flashbacks. The likes. But it does keep life interesting, after all. I mean, sanity is awfully boring."

Another smirk. Definitely not Iria from the Colonies. Certainly Azula.

And Azula proves herself to be Princess Azula even more when she asks, "So what is it you want from me? Why are you here for nine months when you're so happy on Kyoshi Island? Or are you convinced I'm faking my pregnancy and you want to expose me? Or, do you want to expose me in another way?"

"Don't hit on me," Ty Lee snaps and Azula's nostrils flare, her eyes flashing bright, deadly gold. "I don't need you to hit on me. I'm here because I have felt responsible for your breakdown for _years _and now I have a chance to try to make myself feel a bit better."

"So I'm just an object so you can ease your damned conscience?" Azula snarls, her calm, cold tone become fiery hot. She changed so quickly from a cold candle to an oil fire.

"Yes," Ty Lee bites, not wanting to justify herself or cave into Azula's games.

She stands up and excuses herself from the room.

Ty Lee does not need this.

* * *

><p>"I'm taking you to the doctor," Zuko wakes Azula with. She grits her teeth.<p>

She is lying comfortably in bed, having not slept at all. Part of her wanted to wake with the sun, the other part of her wanted to go back to sleep. But then Zuko simply barges in and demands her to _do things_. She is getting incredibly tired of it.

"You can't make me," Azula replies, feeling like a small child. She will _have _a small child soon and that absolutely terrifies her to the core. This decision is ridiculous and Azula knows it is more and more every day.

"Azula, you're having a baby. You're going to the doctor."

"We've been through this," Azula snaps and Zuko groans. He massages his temples with his fingers and takes a slow breath. "I don't want to. It's going to come out eventually."

"I don't understand you. Are you punishing yourself or something?" Zuko asks and Azula sits up. "Please come to the doctor. You don't look well and I'm getting worried."

"You aren't my father. Stop acting like it."

"I act _nothing _like our father." He is defensive and Azula loves it. "I know you hate being cared for but people care about you and you have to deal with that. Now get dressed or so help me I will take you in your underwear."

"Not my father," Azula mutters but she surrenders. This is a fight she does not think she can win, and she does not want to deal with _losing_.

Zuko leaves the room, shutting the door a little too forcefully and creating a gust of wind. Azula slowly gets up and tries to make herself look remotely presentable. She gets dressed and finds that instead of becoming too tight, her clothes are becoming too loose. And so she opts for a dress that she tightens on herself with a belt. Disappearing into fabric makes her look small and weak, and Azula wants to at least _seem _to be powerful to people, even when she is utterly powerless.

Azula finds herself in a doctor's office. It is nice, nicer than some gross Earth Kingdom hospital. She hates doctors. She hates going places other than the palace. And she hates how friendly everyone is being with Zuko. The people are supposed to _hate _him, but apparently they have stopped by now.

Then again, Azula _does _want Zuko to succeed. She loves the Fire Nation more than she loves her sibling rivalry.

The doctor introduces herself and Zuko smiles at her. A politician's smile. Azula is almost proud of him.

"I haven't seen you since you were a little girl," the doctor says.

"I have no recollection of you," Azula replies, crossing her arms.

"You wouldn't, of course," the doctor corrects and Azula tries not to roll her eyes. "How many weeks pregnant are you."

Azula shrugs. "Seven? Hm. Eight? Six?" She gives up. "I saw some doctor about being ill or something and she told me I was knocked up. There."

"How long ago was that?" The doctor looks nervous and it gives Azula a slight power rush. Nothing compared to making generals sweat, but it feels good regardless.

"A month," Azula says assuredly. The doctor nods and proceeds with the examination.

Azula has not been to a doctor since her mother was around. Even when she snapped bones or bled, her father would have none of it. Training injuries were treatable by healers he had lying around. Examinations, he was uninterested in. Oppression, or something. Hiding secrets, most likely. Azula has been examined by doctors once since then, and she did not take kindly to it. But this woman is less enraging than the psychologists, psychotherapists and psychiatrists.

"Why didn't you come to see me earlier?" the doctor inquires as Azula stares at her. It has been uncomfortably silent as the doctor attempted small talk and Azula returned cold hard silence.

"I didn't feel like it. I am royalty and I do as I please," Azula says confidently.

"You're deficient in protein. You're losing muscle mass," the doctor replies and Azula blinks twice.

_That _is not tolerable to Azula. The only thing that keeps her from completely losing it is the ability to practice firebending, to lose herself in the cerulean flames. The idea of losing muscle is something that would scare anyone whose life revolves around physical fitness.

Azula clears her throat and demands, "You can do something about that? Right?"

"You can take supplements. You'll need vitamins anyway. I used to be a doctor in the colonies. Earth Kingdom women lost their babies so often. It's different in Caldera where even the poor are rich."

"I don't give a fuck about Earth Kingdom women."

"I'm trying to tell you that you're less healthy than they were." The doctor quickly cringes as if Azula threw something at her, but the princess's face has not even moved. "I would like to ask you to come see me fairly frequently. This _is _an heir to the Fire Nation."

"My child will never have the throne even if everyone else in succession dies. People would never allow it." Azula's heart pounds in her throat. As her doctor opens her mouth to say more, Azula steps down from the repurposed massage table and walks out of the door.

She grabs Zuko by the elbow, making him yelp in surprise and tugs him towards the door.

"What is it?" Zuko asks, panicked. He does not like the look in Azula's eyes one bit.

"We're leaving and never coming back."

* * *

><p>"Get me tea, now," Azula snaps at Mai, who simply sighs.<p>

_'I'm not your servant,'_ Mai wants to say, but she crosses her arms, examines Azula curled in the fetal position on her bathroom floor and decides to go get Azula the tea she demands. She _does _feel bad that Azula is having to deal with this, even if it is her own choice. Princess Azula is not the kind of person who can handle a pregnancy well. She is far better suited for battles and negotiations than whatever grotesque things her body is doing to itself.

As Mai walks towards the kitchens to find a servant, she bumps her shoulder into Ty Lee. She stops and stands as Ty Lee's eyes flutter and finally fall on Mai.

"Why are you staying here for nine months?" Mai asks and Ty Lee looks confused. "Go on."

"Because Azula is pregnant and I want to help her," Ty Lee lies with a grin. Mai sees through it like a freshly washed window, but she tolerates her liar friends because she does not have the energy or desire to argue.

"Then go get her tea," Mai says sharply and Ty Lee groans. "You want to help her? She asked for tea."

"Ugh. Fine," Ty Lee agrees, realizing Mai has her by the neck with her lie. The acrobat does not want to divulge why she is actually staying with Azula for this extended period of time, and so she walks to the kitchens as Mai briefly enjoys her freedom.

Ty Lee walks to the kitchens and has a kind conversation with a servant. She is finally handed a cup of Azula's favorite white tea, and she walks through the halls towards Azula's bedroom. Mai almost catching her was quite nasty. She thinks she will have to tread lightly with Azula if she wants to avoid emotional agony.

Because Azula, by definition, _is _emotional agony.

Ty Lee knocks on the door of her room and a defeated voice says, "Took you long enough."

With a sharp breath, a forced smile and a roll of her wide eyes, Ty Lee opens the door and walks inside. Azula is curled up on the clean tile floor of the bathroom, surrounded by dim candles. She must have been in here all night and Ty Lee pities her for a moment.

"Zuko told me your doctor visit didn't go so well." Ty Lee offers the tea to Azula.

"You really know how to start a conversation," Azula spits, accepting it with a rough motion of her hand that nearly knocks Ty Lee off balance, and splashes hot tea on both of their wrists.

Ty Lee blushes. "Have you been taking the supplements she gave you?"

"Ugh. At least fuck me if you want to be so invasive and controlling." Azula is quiet. "Yes, I have, but it's not like I can keep them down. She's obviously a fraud."

"Probably," Ty Lee agrees. "I want to apologize for asking you all those invasive questions yesterday. I..." Ty Lee clenches her jaw for a moment. "I was kinda jealous."

"Evidently," Azula says, drawing out the word with pleasure. Ty Lee's eye twitches.

"It's hard to see your ex pregnant. I guess." Ty Lee is quiet as Azula sips her tea and chokes down bile with it. It is a deplorably disgusting mixture. "But you need somebody who knows about this kind of thing. Especially if you're really sick."

"I'm not really sick. I am completely healthy."

"Azula, you're nearly transparent."

"Ugh. Is my aura looking sickly? Or is it my nasty _vibes _that give it away?" Azula snaps before coughing and retching. She inhales quickly and prevents herself from vomiting again.

"I'm not going to try to be your parent like Zuko. But I'm not going to just laugh it up with you and sit around like Mai. I'm here whether you like it or not and I will help you no matter how many times you insult me," Ty Lee says tenaciously and Azula's eyes are wide. "You're going to have to try harder than that if you want to get rid of me."

"Wonderful, I'm stuck with you. I don't understand why you don't just date Zuko with your Water Peasant love and your moral compasses. I used to respect you but you lost all of that when you decided to..." Azula stops talking because she winds up vomiting. Ty Lee clenches her jaw for a moment, then slides on her knees and holds Azula's hair above her neck.

She is _going _to rescue Azula if it is the last thing she does. No matter how hard this bitch tries to resist, Ty Lee will win out in the end.

Azula hates to admit how nice Ty Lee's hand feels while it rubs her back.

* * *

><p>Azula is trying to sort out her desires. It is killing her.<p>

"You need a purpose," Zuko says, Mai beside him. She is just here for the show, to be perfectly honest. "I want you to make me a list of potential projects for you to channel your energy into."

"Overthrow Fire Lord Zuko's Regime," Azula suggests and Zuko sighs. "Become Most Famous Serial Killer in Fire Nation History." Her brother sighs again. "Open a Casino. Decorate Cakes. Start Illegal Gladiator Ring for Homeless Earthbenders."

"Please take this seriously!" Zuko exclaims as he snaps his pen in half. Azula just shrugs. "You agreed to work with me on your recovery and you're going to do it."

"I am so sick of you assholes trying to control me. Father controlled me for my whole life. Violently. You're not just acting like a paternal asshole, you _are _father. You just dress it up with your little good guy ribbons so nobody calls you out on it," Azula snarls and Zuko's fingers contort into an unnatural position to keep them from smoking in rage.

"Azula," Mai interrupts and Azula's eyes widen. So far Mai is the only person who has not tried to implement control on her, "projects are fun. You're happiest when you're working towards a goal. Zuko could be making you do way worse things. If I was in control of your freedom and future, I would be having a lot more fun with this than him."

Azula grinds her teeth together and swallows her pride.

"Open a Firebending Academy."

Zuko writes that one down.


	3. Maybe It Would Be Nice to Be a Fish

**AN: **Now for the Tyzula. Or the humble beginnings of the Tyzula.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Three ─ Maybe It Would Be Nice to be a Fish<strong>

* * *

><p>Ty Lee escorts Azula out on a shopping trip at the request of her conscience. The princess has been looking increasingly more sickly, and has been adamantly refusing Zuko taking her to the doctor again. And so Ty Lee has taken it upon herself to clean up royal messes, which seems to be her job for the next nine months, until she can comfortably return to Kyoshi Island, where things make sense.<p>

She used to find Kyoshi Island to be the strange place. The customs were confusing. Agni, the _blankets _might as well have needed an instruction manual. But now she feels out of place in the Fire Nation. So much of it has changed in so little time. It all feels strange to her. And with Azula, stranger still.

"I was thinking lunch first?" Ty Lee suggests hopefully. Getting Azula to eat is step one of her plan. Whether the princess will play along is something else entirely.

"If that's what you want," Azula says halfheartedly and Ty Lee tries not to cringe. The princess being... meek. It seems like an act, but Azula has changed so much that it is difficult to tell. "It's nice spending time with you."

Ty Lee stops in her tracks. The guards around them touch their weapons, but Azula only blinks and stares at Ty Lee.

"You never even said that kind of thing when we were _dating_. Azula, what are you playing?" Ty Lee asks, studying Azula with the eyes of an animal encountering a hunter in the wild.

Azula breathes in for a moment and Ty Lee expects an answer, but she just exhales. "Do you want lunch or not?"

Ty Lee runs her tongue along her teeth as she gazes at Azula. Her powers of perception are nothing compared to the princess, and she never paid much attention to others. Something is incredibly amiss about Azula's carelessness. The way she bends to Zuko without a fight is disturbing at the least.

Likely, Ty Lee thinks it is Azula's survival instincts. Azula is many things, but self obsessed is her main trait. And she would sacrifice most anything for her own survival. It is one of the things that deteriorated their relationship so severely. And being weak and malleable is one way to ensure Azula is not questioned or tried as a war criminal or tried to be _fixed _again.

Playing the part of the broken little girl... well, that would trick Zuko any day. And Ty Lee wonders if she is simply paranoid, or if she is the only one who can see through the act. Maybe Azula really has fallen this far. That, Ty Lee guesses, frightens her much more than Azula playing everyone until she can strike.

"Is that noodle house place still open?" Ty Lee asks feebly before realizing that Azula has been in Caldera only a month longer than she has.

"Probably." Azula shrugs and Ty Lee feels queasy. Each time she looks at the passive dullness in her gold eyes, Ty Lee worries. And she worries more about her protruding shoulder bones and the way she does not even argue with the guards Zuko has appointed to watch her all the time. More so, she worries that she is still in love with Azula, and not just guilty about her breakdown.

Earlier this morning, Azula overheard something intriguing. Mai and Ty Lee arguing. Ty Lee claimed she was here to _fix _Azula. To _save _her from herself. It was a teary and melodramatic reaction that made Azula slightly queasy.

Pretending to be small, broken and weak was easy when no one tried to do anything about it than leave her alone. It made Zuko bend to her and made Mai find her nonthreatening. But of course Ty Lee would think _saving _Azula was her destiny or something equally ridiculous.

And Azula is well aware that Ty Lee has her own self-interested intentions about this lunch date and shopping trip. But Azula plays along, because she needs to get the odds in her favor again before this baby is born. While Ty Lee is a nuisance and Azula finds herself still painfully attracted to her after all of these years, she also can be helpful to Azula's cause.

They arrive at Sri's, the noodle house they used to eat at during the war. It still looks the same, to Ty Lee's relief. She and Azula are taken to a nice table immediately and Ty Lee plays with the curtains on the window; they are the same curtains that were there when she was a child. Even the archaic palace cannot boast that fact.

Ty Lee orders the same food she used to get as a child and feels relieved by it. Azula is not talking, she is playing with the candle at the center of the table, twisting it into different shades of blue and intriguing shapes. Ty Lee is drawn in by it for a moment, captivated.

"You should open that firebending academy," Ty Lee remarks and Azula does not respond at first. "You'd be really good at it."

Azula pauses. She would be really good at being a politician, not a firebending teacher. But being nonthreatening to Zuko is the only thing maintaining her freedom. It is starting to sicken her, and Ty Lee's enthusiasm about her weakness fills her with anger. But she is quiet.

"I might do it. I haven't decided," Azula says, although it physically pains her. There is an acidic burn in her chest when she forces the words out that she knows she must say to survive. "You all seem to assume this is incredibly easy for me."

"Most things are," Ty Lee breathes, tapping her foot against the leg of her chair uncomfortably. Azula studies her for a moment, her eyes slightly narrowed.

"I'm well aware," she says, and the waitress interrupts the discomfort by asking for their orders.

Their food arrives and Azula suddenly feels queasy. The smell is awful and she curses the fact that she is knocked up. And even more resents that she is putting _herself _through this torment.

"Please eat," Ty Lee says, her fingers leaving her chopsticks poked into the rice like a Fire Nation flag jabbed onto an Earth Kingdom hill, claiming it.

"I don't want to," Azula says smoothly, purring. Calm. But Ty Lee can see something in her eyes that is the very opposite of calm.

And Ty Lee picks up a vegetable from her noodles and forces it into Azula's mouth before the princess can react. "Eat."

Azula's fingers light up for a moment, but she eats it. "That's it. Don't you dare do that again or I'll be forced to mutilate your pretty face."

_That _is more like the Azula Ty Lee knows. And she is disturbed by how _arousing _she finds the threats. All of these feelings that Ty Lee forgot are resurfacing, and it utterly terrifies her.

The lunch, at the careful moves of Ty Lee, forgets the circumstances surrounding the day out. She makes Azula laugh and it is not high, false and cold. It warms Ty Lee's cheeks as she feels herself getting sucked into Azula's gravitational pull again. And as she is tugged under by the princess, she has no desire to take a breath or try to escape.

It is the nicest lunch Ty Lee has had in a long time. And that is more frightening than consoling.

After lunch, Ty Lee insists that Azula take her to the pet store. It is cute, but Azula dislikes pets most of the time. Ty Lee is excited about it, glancing at the pets, and then gazing at Azula. The princess is starting to wonder even further what exactly Ty Lee wants from her; she is getting worried.

Ty Lee examines the fish tank in the pet store with great interest. Azula looks bored, flipping through a book on kitten training.

And so Ty Lee makes a move. "If I could be any animal, I would be a fish."

"Why?" Azula asks, narrowing her eyes. It is the first genuine interest she has shown in Ty Lee all day.

"They just swim around and don't care and they're very pretty," Ty Lee replies, shrugging. "And if I could be any flower... sunflower. Definitely a sunflower."

"You repulse me," Azula says casually.

"You're not going to respond?" Ty Lee goads, stepping away from the fish and standing beside Azula as she presides over the glossy bookshelf.

"Dragon... and... hm... some sort of cactus," Azula replies honestly and Ty Lee giggles. "What's so funny about my answers?"

"Nothing, they're just... you," Ty Lee says, trying not to let her relief wash into her voice. Knowing Azula would like to be a dragon or a cactus means that Azula is still somewhere in that seemingly hollow shell of a person.

"Would you like one of those fish? I'll buy you one," Azula says and Ty Lee is again concerned. Hopefully Azula is playing her. Hopefully.

"The orange one is nice. He looks happy," Ty Lee says weakly. She keeps analyzing Azula, unsure what she is going to do. This new Azula is strange; she even smells different. It is unnerving.

"Then the orange one it is," Azula purrs and the self important twist of her lips _is _Azula. But the gesture of purchasing Ty Lee a pet is _not_.

"Okay, why are you being nice to me?" Ty Lee snaps, crossing her arms. "You're acting so weird."

Azula chews on her lip. Ty Lee does not expect an answer, but she now notices the torn, bleeding flesh where Azula's teeth are colliding. She is struggling with this persona and Ty Lee realizes it abruptly. Playing them it is.

Ty Lee quickly adds, "I understand what you're doing. Your powers of deception are impressive and you're trying to protect yourself and play a victim. But it's me."

"I don't know who you are anymore, Ty Lee. I haven't known who you are since the Boiling Rock," Azula says sharply, her tone venomous. Her eyes sparkle with malice instead of a dull, tarnished gleam. "Don't pretend to be my friend. If you're trying to _save _me from myself as I heard you telling Mai you intend to do, don't hold your fucking breath."

Ty Lee's eyes flash wide. She is stunned. "I'm not trying to-to _save _you!"

"You need some lessons in lying," Azula says before walking to the counter and purchasing Ty Lee her fish. Azula is _confusing_. It was a quality Ty Lee fell in love with as a dumb adolescent, how one moment she could be about to burn someone alive, then the next picking you flowers, but as an adult, it is terrifying and unsettling.

"Enjoy your pet," Azula breathes and Ty Lee furrows her brow. This is harder than she thought it would be.

As they delve further into the marketplace, Ty Lee decides she will attempt to broach the topic of Azula's pregnancy again. It is risky, yes, but she will do it, so help her. The child is the main reason Ty Lee is trying to shove herself back into Azula's path of destruction again, because... some odd obligation. She does not know.

It is a compulsion. A strange purpose.

But she _will _do it, because Ty Lee has made her mind up. And Ty Lee is now a decisive, empowered adult female who can choose where to live and what to do, even if it kills her. Azula seems yet to have realized that.

"Those kids are cute," Ty Lee remarks as she sees Azula gazing at a little boy and littler girl running around playing with their firebending and anything they grab off of the dirty street. It is the perfect opportunity to discuss the future child of the princess, Ty Lee notes. "They remind me of you and Zuko."

"I sincerely hope I don't have a _me and Zuko_," Azula says, glancing at her abdomen for a moment. She is showing slightly, barely enough to notice. And Ty Lee can see the conflicted feelings in her golden eyes that she tries to hide. "I don't think I have the ability to deal with that."

"Do you have the ability to deal with a child at all?" Ty Lee says before her cheeks turn bright pink. "I'm sorry ─ don't take it that way, princess. I mean, you're good at everything. But I'm just worried that you're not really ready or something and I..." Ty Lee gulps.

"You know, I used to say impossible was just a word for things I haven't tried yet. This pregnancy is threatening to prove me wrong. But you have no need to worry about me. I have made my decision and I do not need other people telling me what to do. I am no one's _belonging_. And I do _not _need to be _fixed_," Azula says sharply and Ty Lee clenches and unclenches her fist repeatedly. Azula likes that she has pushed her onto the defensive, and she intends to keep it that way.

"I'm sorry for saying that, Azula," Ty Lee admits, although she is not sorry and Azula knows she is not. "I don't think you need saving."

Azula stops walking and Ty Lee grimaces. The guard again looks nervous.

"Yes, you do. Stop lying to me or go back to your island," Azula says sharply and Ty Lee finds herself missing the strange and uncomfortable Azula who is malleable and meek. "I deserve your respect."

"I know you do," Ty Lee admits feebly. She is extremely frustrated as this is not working in her favor at all whatsoever.

She tries to look for more things to distract Azula and ultimately struggles. She purchases a few things she needs for her extended stay: clothes, a bag. Azula clutches the fish the entire time, examining it closely and watching it swim. Maybe Ty Lee is right, she wonders, and it would be nice to be a fish. Just swimming... not caring... not knowing.

"Look, that place is for sale," Ty Lee says as they pass an ornate red building. "Do you really want to open a Firebending Academy? Because it would go well there."

"I guess. Zuko wants me to," Azula replies, although they have been through _firebending academy _at least ten times since lunch. Azula is beginning to wonder if Zuko paid Ty Lee to try to convince Azula.

"But do you want to? I know I keep asking... I'm sorry. I'm out of things to say, I guess," Ty Lee says, swallowing. "I just want... I just want to make your world better. It's not about saving you or making myself feel better. I just... hm."

"I don't think it matters. I'm pretty sure it's Zuko's world now, not mine," Azula says coolly before quickening her pace. Ty Lee supposes, again, she has lost.

Night falls and they are loaded with new belongings. They stop by the pier, looking out at the merchant ships. Azula gazes at the water.

"I haven't left the palace since I came home," Azula admits abruptly. Ty Lee is startled at her openness after avoiding genuine conversation for seven hours. "The outside world is not terrible, I guess. It smells wrong. Does it smell wrong to you?"

Ty Lee pauses for a moment. "Yes. I wonder what changed."

Her fingers move towards Azula's before her brain remembers why that is a bad idea. But the water is beautiful, glittering beneath the rising, pale, paper-white moon. The guards are twitching anxiously and Azula takes that as a sign that she has to go home. It _would _be like Zuko to impose a curfew on her without mentioning it, to try to absolve himself of any blame.

"Let's get back to the palace. Today has been terrible and I want to go home," Azula says, handing Ty Lee her fish. Today has _not _been terrible, but there is no way Azula is going to tell Ty Lee that.

"Okay," Ty Lee agrees so amicably that Azula wants to shove her into the ocean.

Ty Lee stares at Azula for a moment, and then looks to her fish.

These feelings are getting too confusing, and Ty Lee is struggling to fight them.

* * *

><p>They arrive back at the palace and find the halls, rooms and corridors completely silent. They are alone and Azula sits down on a sofa, curled into a ball. She feels exhausted, much more tired than she thought she was. Ty Lee forcing her to eat has made her less fatigued, again, not that she would admit to the Kyoshi Warrior.<p>

"How are you doing?" Ty Lee asks and Azula does not respond. "Don't do that."

"Don't tell me what to do. If you want to gain my trust, you best start treating me like you did before... before." Azula does not necessary want to say it. Ty Lee does not blame her.

"Before, yes," Ty Lee says, knowing what she means. Before her breakdown. Ty Lee suddenly is stricken by the fact that this ruse is not hard for Azula. This is how people _want _her to behave. They want her to be broken, shattered and their image of her after she lost her mind.

That shifts something inside of Ty Lee. Pity. She never thought she would _pity _Azula, even after everything that happened to her. Even when she saw the scars of abuse or the way she was so cruel and her view of the world was in such a harsh, calculated, clinical black and white. Never once did Ty Lee pity Azula, because she _loved _Azula, and she knew the princess would never stand for that.

But now she looks at her, curled on the sofa with her knees nearly touching her chin, her legs over a baby bump she has for some reason Ty Lee cannot fathom.

Guilt, pity, remorse, faded love.

Those are the feelings Ty Lee cannot shake.

"I'm going to go set up my fish tank," Ty Lee says, excusing herself. There are so many things she wants to say to Azula. And even more places she wants to kiss her and now she is doubly confused.

The instability of their relationship never changes. But now it seems harsher, because Ty Lee has been without her for so long. What was normal to a young Ty Lee is strange and frightening to an adult Ty Lee. Why she desires it? Well, that is baffling.

She sets up her fish in its new home and watches it swim.

That night she thinks long and hard about where she wants her relationship with Azula to go.

And by the time she falls asleep, she has no conclusion.

She dreams about Azula that night. It is not the sweet kind.


	4. The Fire Days Festival

**Chapter Four ─ The Fire Days Festival**

* * *

><p>Ty Lee is interrupted while feeding her fish by someone walking into her room uninvited. She glances up, setting aside the small crystal jar of food for him. It is Azula, looking more radiant than usual, somehow.<p>

"So, that Fire Days Festival, do you have a date?" Azula purrs and Ty Lee narrows her eyes. The princess's strange behavior is only getting stranger, and Ty Lee is beginning to worry. And beginning to worry even more about how she is starting to fall for Azula again, starting to appreciate her new smell, starting to want to have a part in Azula's future.

"Not that I know of. I don't really know too many people in the Fire Nation anymore," Ty Lee says before realizing that Azula is asking her to be her date. "I would be honored to be your date. A friends date. Platonically."

She fears she protests too much and Azula will see right through her, but such is life. Azula smirks faintly and disappears down the hall, ready to gather servants to wash her hair and prepare her to be undeniably beautiful for the festival; it is her first true one since running away years ago, and now she is about to enjoy it again.

_The distinct lack of booze, however, will not be pleasant._

"Cover up the bump, will you?" Azula demands of the woman picking out Azula's dress as she leans back, dipped into the water as combs gently move through her hair. When Mai first brought her back to the palace, there were so many tangles that one of the servants burst into hysterical tears.

A make-up artist gently descends upon Azula, slipping the paints and oils over her face. She will be perfect. Princess Azula will not look like the sallow, half-dead pregnant woman with dark circles under her eyes and madness behind them.

And when she is finished, and she examines herself in the mirror as the servants fret, she decides she has succeeded.

Azula is not beautiful. She is not _pretty_.

She is as radiant as the sun.

* * *

><p>"I'm bringing, uh, a date, actually," Mai stammers as Ty Lee and Azula greet each other.<p>

Zuko is stunned. He knows that he and Mai are not together yet, but he expected her to at least be his _friends _date. Agni, he should have arranged for someone so he would not look like such a fool.

Azula and Ty Lee look each other up and down, both engrossed in the beauty in front of them. Their eyes cannot part from each other and Mai watches with a small smirk, knowing where this will end up by sunrise. Perhaps even before the fireworks end, Azula and Ty Lee will be a couple again.

_Mai knows it._

"So, who's your date?" Zuko asks hesitantly, examining Mai and wondering why she has not mentioned a partner of any kind.

"Funny story, I met her when I was tracking down Azula," Mai says and Zuko feels as if it is eerily familiar. "She stayed in the Fire Nation because the money was good. Or maybe the bars were good? Spirits if I know. Anyway, it's not serious... we just hooked up once or twice, or whatever."

The dry monotone of Mai's voice is in direct contrast of Zuko's gaping jaw. He did not... the thought of Mai hooking up with anyone but him is terrifying.

_There was Suki_, Zuko thinks before regretting it. He did sleep with her one night and then a handful of the girls who gather outside of the palace squealing about their hot Fire Lord. So he has no right to be jealous of Mai, even though he has seething envy within him.

"Oh, there she is," Mai says, waving as the woman enters the palace.

Azula looks her up and down in approval and mild, complex arousal. Ty Lee grits her teeth and Mai's observation of their love rekindling is confirmed yet again.

"So the rich bounty hunter who doesn't do it for the money got me royal front seats to the Fire Days Festival," Jun says as Zuko's lips part in surprise. "Good to see you again, Fire Lord Zuko." He is not sure if Jun is mocking him or not. "And _you_," Jun says, turning to Azula. She sighs. "I lost a decent bet on my ability to track _you _down. Congratulations on the glorified parasite that will grow up to hate you."

Azula looks down at her abdomen, having been certain that the dress covered up her baby bump. Mai told Jun, is the conclusion of everyone in the room, which makes Zuko looks even more aghast.

Mai and Jun look at each other and share a kiss that is certainly not romantically, and has more sparks and charge than Azula's lightning, and is almost as sexy. Ty Lee just shrugs when Azula turns to her, and the princess and her acrobat depart the palace, leaving the awkward threesome of Mai, Jun and Zuko behind.

* * *

><p>"I was <em>going <em>to ask Mai out tonight," Zuko grumbles with a small frown. Ty Lee grins at him, and he realizes she is probably the only person who would react to that with excitement.

Mai and Jun decided to go to the nearest bar, which Zuko, Ty Lee and Azula all could not imagine Mai doing. But Ty Lee is well aware that Mai has had a circus in her bedroom over the past two years, and Jun is just a fling that is making Mai do weird things for a few months.

Even Aang, who is supportive of any kind of love, told Zuko perhaps he should move past Mai. But she makes him happy, she does. Or he thinks she does, at least.

"There's still hope you know? That Jun girl is just a fling and Mai has had like a _billion _of those since she broke up with you," Ty Lee says blithely with a dismissive wave of her hand. "And the reason her flings are with absolute crazy people who will never work out is because she's still _so _into you."

"Really?" Zuko asks, stunned.

Azula grimaces at all of the attention Ty Lee is giving Zuko, and how the boys in the street are stripping her companion with their eyes.

She takes a risk and seizes Ty Lee by the waist, an action she wishes she had performed long, long ago. Azula presses her lips fiercely against Ty Lee's neck and pulls her away from Zuko, the acrobat confused by how _sexy _this is, but also livid at Azula doing it without her consent.

"That was a boring conversation," Azula sighs as Ty Lee breaks away from her. They are apart for a moment before Ty Lee decides to hold Azula's hand. "Do you want lava cake?"

Azula then realizes that she _needs _lava cake. She has never _needed _something as much as she needs a lava cake and it hits her with a vibrant passion. She imagines it on her tongue, is transfixed by the taste.

Azula answers for Ty Lee, "We're getting lava cake. Find me a stand!"

Ty Lee flinches at Azula shouting her demand, when she has been so muted of late, even when ordering around servants. Ty Lee stands up on her toes and locks her eyes on a street lined with sweets vendors.

"I'm going to get a lava cake as _big as my face_," Ty Lee says fiercely, her eyes lighting up at the sweets vendors. "_As big as my face_. They don't have things like this in the Earth Kingdom."

"You don't belong with those peasants," Azula purrs as she follows Ty Lee to the vendor. And then Azula has to suppress a surge of vomit at the strong scent of frying dough from a nearby stand. She keeps silent as Ty Lee orders a lava cake and taps her feet impatiently as she waits for it.

_Wonderful, _she thinks she will _die _without lava cake, but the scent of the other stall is enough to make her hurl all over her new plate of dripping chocolate that she can barely hold her chopsticks straight to eat.

Ty Lee takes a huge bite of chocolate and contemplates Azula's words. It _is _true that she never quite fit in, given how indoctrinated into the Fire Nation she had been. But Ty Lee is flexible and able to mold herself into most situations. She did not have as much trouble on Kyoshi Island as she thought she would.

And as she looks around at the Fire Days Festival, she thinks that now the _Fire Nation _is where she does not fit in.

But, she notes, she does like spending time with Azula. It's madness, really, genuine madness to be hooked on Azula again, and it probably is going to be about as successful as Mai and Jun. But Ty Lee eats her lava cake and sees a small smudge on Azula's face.

She hesitates for a moment before licking it off of Azula's lips, making the princess's golden eyes flash. A second bold move that both of them try to ignore, and Ty Lee wonders why they so desperately want to deny their feelings. Perhaps because they have grown so fast, like a dust storm in the Si Wong Desert.

"I'm sorry," Ty Lee murmurs, shifting her weight from foot to foot.

"Let's find a bathroom," Azula replies, not wanting to discuss she and Ty Lee's relationship.

Azula is a person who operates with objectives and goals, and does best when she is doing so. And her current objective is to be as nonthreatening as possible while pretending to play along with Zuko's fantasy of redeeming her. And falling in love with Ty Lee again, if you can even call it love, is too much of a risk.

She locates a bathroom and slips inside, Ty Lee following her. After Azula washes her hands, Ty Lee examining herself in the mirror to her great pleasure, Ty Lee reclaims Azula's fingers, intertwining them with hers.

A couple who came in just after them, two women who have not stopped making out like eel sharks, wink at Azula and Ty Lee.

"We're not a couple," Azula snaps, but it is too late, and her comment only results in Ty Lee's cheeks flushing bright red.

The acrobat and princess exchange a glance, and walk back out into the Fire Days Festival.

* * *

><p>Ty Lee and Azula are out on their own, and Ty Lee buys Azula a cinnamon pop. The princess licks and sucks on it and Ty Lee immediately regrets her purchase when she feels a surge of heat where she absolutely does not want it. She stares at Azula and the princess notices, before smirking quite wickedly and making her casual eating of the hard candy into something overtly sexual.<p>

Before Ty Lee can say anything, blurt out her strange, sudden feelings for her old flame, Mai, Jun and Zuko show up. Mai and Jun are holding containers of liquor that are probably enough to kill an elephant koi, and Mai seems to be pretending to drink hers when Jun is looking, which Zuko is too oblivious to notice, much to Ty Lee's dismay.

Azula is sucking on her cinnamon pop and laughing with Ty Lee, Mai and Zuko. They feel united for the first time since that night in the beach, which might as well have been millennia before. Cracking jokes about sex and Ty Lee wraps her arm around Azula's waist.

The princess can only feel surges of pleasure and happiness. It makes her hate herself in a way, because she promised she would never do love again. Or at least until she gives birth to her baby and convinces Zuko and everyone that she is _good_. Ha. Zuko thinks she really can change, which, Azula finds hilarious, not that she would comment on it when she is in such a precarious position.

"I have to pee," Ty Lee says brightly, leaving Azula beside her. Mai and Zuko have just taken off to head in the direction of where Zuko is to make his address, to bless the coming year, the Fire Spirits meant to listen to him. "Can you wait for me?"

"Of course," Azula breathes, Ty Lee slipping away from her towards the bathrooms.

Azula lingers for a moment, looking at the people in spirit masks around her. The couples, the families, the people who have others who love them unconditionally. It makes her feel slightly ill, and not just because she is pregnant.

And then everything changes, her world comes crashing down upon her. She can taste ash and she drops the cinnamon pop that has turned to the dust of charred bones in her hands. Her heart races, pounding, palpitating.

The world is ash, scorched, burned. And the sky is streaked with eerie colors and when Azula reaches for the wall of the teashop beside her, it crumbles, again, bones falling onto her feet.

She walks away, suffocating on the ash. _This is not real. This is not real. This is not real. _And she _knows _that it is _not _real.

In front of her, she can see a little girl who looks like her but she does not _think _is her, and in her hand she clutches a stuffed tiger-monkey, like the one Azula held tightly to her chest at night before her father burned it and told her she had to grow up.

Azula follows the girl through the empty, burnt streets. The child is running, avoiding the flames that burn and crackle in Caldera. Finally, Azula catches up with her at the edge of town, near the gates leading to the woods.

She turns to Azula, and their golden eyes lock, and then she burns like paper beneath the fingertips of a bender.

Azula lunges for her with a wordless cry, and then is suddenly jolted into reality. _This _is real.

Ty Lee has grabbed her arm, looking quite content. "You dropped your cinnamon pop," Ty Lee remarks calmly and Azula swallows the lump in her throat. And then Ty Lee looks Azula up and down, analyzing her. "Is something wrong?"

"Let's go somewhere quieter," Azula murmurs, tugging Ty Lee away from the crowded streets, beneath the strings of lanterns and past the carnival games.

Ty Lee follows Azula, feeling concerned for her the entire way. They climb up the side of the hill, Ty Lee worried about the baby when Azula does it, but too afraid to speak up. The princess is clearly upset about something, and Ty Lee has no idea what.

The Fire Days Festival is always fun, not... whatever this is.

Azula lies down in a clearing with a view of the fireworks and the glowing city. The pier is lit up magnificently in the dark night as the Fire Nation drops everything and celebrates. But Azula does not feel like having a _party_.

"Are you okay?" Ty Lee asks, although she doubts she will get a straight answer.

Princess Azula just shrugs and squints at the stars. Fireworks go off and the loud bangs make her tremble slightly, although she cannot explain why.

Ty Lee hesitantly touches her hand, unsure what else to do. She has put so much thought into why she does _not _desire a relationship with Azula, but when she looks at the princess, she can only remember how she loved her once and how she loves her still, despite all that has come between them.

"Sometimes I just wish I was dead," Azula whispers, staring up at the moon and how it is blacked out by smog and overshadowed by fireworks. "I wish I was dead and you all were too."

Ty Lee does not know what to say to that, rubbing her lips with her finger and staring at the tears rolling from the princess's eyes and dripping to the grass beneath her slender neck.

Azula continues, "I don't know how I can raise this child when I can barely take care of myself. Maybe I should... maybe I should just go back to the asylum."

And Ty Lee is silent. Azula does not want the silence and she sits up in rage, burning the dry grass around her to a violent crisp. The flames lick near Ty Lee's skin, but none of it touches her. Azula still has some control, and that puts Ty Lee at a slight ease.

Azula walks away, in the opposite direction of the festival. Ty Lee swallows and follows her, although she knows she is causing more of a mess than cleaning one up. She chases after Azula as she moves through the shadows.

Ty Lee stops, gasping for breath, as she looks at Azula staring at the city from a perch on the caldera. The city that she loves, the city that she grew up in, and the city that has scorned her. The one she keeps imagining burning to ash, burning because of her, because of a fire she incited.

"Why do you say that?" Ty Lee whispers, her heart pounding. She thinks of how she told herself she should visit Azula, again and again. When Suki went to protect Zuko... or something. She should have told Azula how she felt and apologized, even though she supposes that she did nothing wrong.

Azula rubs her lips together. "I know I shouldn't be honest with you. And don't think I trust you for a second. But I'm... pretty much a mess. Every time the fetus moves I get close to panic attacks... I still have hallucinations sometimes. I don't know who I'm kidding trying to restore myself to my former glory when I can barely get out of bed some days."

Ty Lee pauses for a moment, breathing in deeply. Azula feels a hot surge of regret that burns like blue flame when she realizes she should not have told Ty Lee that.

But the acrobat gently caresses the princess's face and murmurs, "You have me... not just nine months. Azula, you can have me until the end of time, and I will make sure you always have someone to wake you up from your nightmares."

Azula hesitates, finding this a combination of risky, mushy, unlike the powerful self she longs to be after so long playing weak, and also, she is sure Ty Lee's promise of forever has many conditions.

But she feels spontaneous tonight after being aglow at the festival, surrounded by cheer and passion, fire burning bright. It made her want to light the fire dying within herself that she does not bother to tend.

And so she kisses Ty Lee with all of the passion she has in herself.

They sink into each other, and make love beneath the fireworks.

Azula's life is not perfect. It is flawed beyond belief. But right now she is as radiant as the sun.


	5. Nice Day to Overthrow the Gov't Pt I

A/N: The next three chapters are a bit more action-y than most. I had the idea for this plot arc really early into planning, when this was a bit more intense/violent, and I still like it, but it is a bit of a shift from the majority of the chapters, which are drama/feels. I hope that's okay, and if you like the action, yay, and if you don't, this isn't me suddenly jumping ship and turning this into an action-fic.

* * *

><p>[second trimester]<p>

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Five ─ Nice Day to Overthrow the Government Part I<br>**

* * *

><p>It has been two weeks since the Fire Days Festival, and the palace has only gotten more tense. Zuko and his feelings for Mai as she runs around with Jun, Azula and Ty Lee and how they absolutely refuse to talk about the passionate sex they had at the festival. Azula and Zuko as Zuko continues to pressure his sister to get her life in order and figure out what she wants.<p>

Nonetheless, Ty Lee is starting to fit in again, beginning to figure out Caldera and all of its changes. She does like the heat, and the nice restaurants and easy access to anything she desires. The perks of living with royalty is also magnificent. Like the bath she is currently in, that she did not have to carry buckets of freezing water out of a dirt well and fill a tub herself to wash in. While Azula's derision towards the Kyoshi Warriors is aggravating and largely based in Fire Nation nationalist misinformation, Ty Lee is beginning to remember how much she liked being rich and in the world's most technologically progressive city.

There are troubling signs of brewing discontent, but it seems mostly under control. Zuko has become more assertive and respected as Fire Lord than last Ty Lee was here. Mai is eternally frustrating, Azula even more so. But Ty Lee is happy.

Happy... and entirely unsure how she is going to express that she is leaving a life she spent so long carefully constructing. She freed herself from the bonds of birth and fate, and then... well, it all led her here.

She is reaching for one of the many glass bottles of soaps, all slightly varying shades of red, when the door opens, feet slide across the floor, and someone is hurling into the sink.

"Hi, princess," Ty Lee says and Azula does not respond... Ty Lee does not think she _can _respond.

Azula sniffs in, glaring at herself in the mirror in utter disgust. Ty Lee would say something along the lines of, _it's perfectly normal_, but Azula has never liked being normal. She watches in utter silence from beneath hot water as Azula fumbles for a toothbrush.

"... Hi, princess," Ty Lee attempts again and Azula drops the toothbrush, looking utterly stunned that there is someone in her bathtub.

"Don't sneak up on people," Azula says sharply, regally, in a way that makes a liberated Ty Lee want to roll her eyes.

"I was here... _mm_, never mind." Ty Lee contemplates getting up, but that would make things more confusing.

Things have been awkward between she and Azula since the Fire Days Festival. They made love beneath fireworks and stars and it was meant to be incredibly beautiful. But Azula wanted to make it go away. Azula, who was jealous and kissed Ty Lee without asking and wanted her, was the one who, yet again, decided to be absurdly hot and cold.

Then again, Ty Lee supposes she stressed the _platonic _idea so much that perhaps Azula is just defending herself from getting hurt. The princess frowns upon vulnerability, Ty Lee is well aware.

"Why do people willingly put themselves through this?" Azula marvels, examining herself in the mirror, sliding her shirt up slightly and Ty Lee believes that, as usual, she might as well be scenery to the princess.

_Well, you're willingly putting yourself through it_, Ty Lee would say, but she keep her mouth shut.

"You're showing, that's cute," Ty Lee offers, blinking and wishing that the water were more concealing, that she did not feel so _bare_. It would probably make this situation a thousand times less awkward.

"Mm," is all Azula can respond with.

Ty Lee takes a deep breath, decides to be brave, and gets out of the bath. Her skin is slick with the soap she did not yet rub from herself as she pulls on a robe and wraps her hair in one of the soft red towels. Azula is still in the mirror, prodding at herself, staring.

"You look a bit pale," Ty Lee says softly, walking towards Azula. "Are you feeling okay?"

"I just threw up my guts in front of you," Azula replies, her voice laden with ice. She is winter fire, snow in summer. Ty Lee hates how much she likes it. "I'm so impressed with your powers of observation."

The awkwardness remains.

* * *

><p>Three weeks after the Fire Days Festival, Azula wakes screaming, and not from a nightmare this time. She is being seized by the hair. Her hands light up and she reaches to burn whoever is grabbing her in the darkness, someone with muscles and force, but she is hit and her bending leaves her, her body feeling weak and useless.<p>

_Ty Lee_... _no_...

She is dragged, still confused, her robe nearly slipping off of her body in the gruff hands of her attackers, as she is taken further and further, at last into a cellar of the palace. It makes her choke on the dust as she looks around the dark rooms and has no idea where this even _is_. She certainly has never seen it.

The only look she gets at her assailants is when she is tossed to the floor, her eyes flashing. Men, masks, armed to the teeth. She looks around, struggling, and sees that she is alone. Half paralyzed, alone, in the darkness.

This is a hallucination. This is _definitely _a hallucination, because there is no way it can be real.

She starts to think, thinking of an escape, thinking of what she can do with her surroundings. The floor is slightly damp and sinks into her silk robe, making her back stick. She then suppresses vomit, deciding this is the worst possible situation.

Just as feeling returns to her fingers, she hears a scream, and someone tumbling down the stairs that Azula was just dragged down. And then another thud of a body. And another. All light.

Azula stares at her feet and wills them to move. Perhaps it will not work against being chi-blocked, but her heart is starting to race with panic. Maybe that flow of blood, or maybe dumb luck lets her get onto her knees with great pain.

Her entire body feels like a foot that fell asleep from sitting on it for too long. If this hurt her baby, she will slowly mutilate the masked commandos who decided to interrupt her sleep and keep her hostage.

"Are you alive?" breathes Azula, grabbing a slick wall for support and walking.

"I can't move!" Ty Lee. Azula looks around her for the other thuds. She examines them for a moment ─ guards, _dead guards_.

"I would laugh, but this isn't very funny," Azula says, examining her chi-blocked old flame. She reaches down and grabs Ty Lee's arm, pulling her into a sitting position and resting her against the wall. Azula slides down onto her knees, sighing from what felt like incredible exertion.

"You can laugh a little," Ty Lee replies quietly but Azula genuinely cannot. She feels a churning inside of her and leans to the side, making everything a thousand times worse with dry heaves.

Azula spits dripping saliva, wipes her mouth with an expression of disgust, and asks Ty Lee, "What's happening?"

Ty Lee's eyes glitter with concern and fear for a moment. "I have no clue. They just grabbed me and there was a huge fight going on. Those guards tried to save me but the guys just killed them."

"Where are Mai and Zuko?" Azula breathes and Ty Lee purses her lips for a moment. She sincerely wishes someone with more intelligence was on her side in this hostage situation.

"Mai went out a few hours ago with Jun and is probably still at whatever super icky bar they went to. Zuko is... _Zuko_!" Ty Lee says, her disturbingly casual tone becoming frantic once she realizes that Fire Lord Zuko is probably in a good deal of trouble.

"Zuko is Zuko?" Azula asks, looking Ty Lee up and down.

"This is a coup. _Azula_, this is a coup," Ty Lee says, starting to hyperventilate. "We're gonna die!"

Azula takes a deep slow breath, ignoring the musty smell of the cellar she is locked in. _No_, she will not die. She has lived through enough insanity to make it through a coup. If she can successfully execute one, she can successfully stop one.

"We need to know who they are and what they want," Azula says slowly, although she has no idea if that idea will help. She just wants to do _something_, anything that can prevent this from happening. "And we probably should stop them from killing my brother."

"Why is this happening? This is so sudden! Somebody should've told us about this!" Ty Lee shrieks, her eyes saucers. Azula chews on her lower lip and tries not to get caught up in Ty Lee's panic.

It will do her no good.

"Since it's sudden, we know they're good at their job," Azula says softly. "But we're the best at our job, which is beating the fuck out of anyone who crosses us."

Ty Lee smiles, but it is not a genuine smile. Azula feels her heart jump when she realizes that Ty Lee is not the optimistic one in this scenario. Things are most certainly not looking up.

They are in utter silence for a long, long time. Probably an hour or two, but it feels like an eternity in sitting-in-a-dank-cellar-waiting-for-death years. And then Ty Lee decides she has to be the brave one, the one to take the plunge and say what she is thinking.

"I wanted to say something," Ty Lee says and Azula swallows forcefully. This is not a good something, judging by her serious tone and lack of sparkle in her voice. "Things have been weird since we slept together at the festival and everything... I... I'm..."

"_You're _wasting your breath," Azula remarks and Ty Lee's eyes flash with rage. But before she can curse Azula out for just stomping on her feelings like a, well, _an Azula_, the princess presses her lips against Ty Lee's.

Ty Lee lingers for a moment, thinking that if this is her last kiss, it is most certainly not her worst. _Most certainly_.

Before either of them can speak, the door opens and they both wait, almost _hoping _for it to be Zuko thrown down with them, or Mai, fuck, even _Jun _would do at this point. But it is three men, different than the ones who took Azula from her bedroom.

"We're here for the princess," says the masked man and Ty Lee would give anything to be able to pounce on him. Azula gives her one glance and allows herself to be taken, dragged almost, up the stairs and through the halls of the palace that belongs to her, and not insurgents.

"I'm pregnant, you know," Azula says as the man holding her jostles her too forcefully. "And if I lose my baby because of you, you do not even want to imagine the pain you will experience."

The man holding her hesitates for a moment. The other two take a few steps before realizing and Azula waits for a moment, trying to figure out if it is an opportune time to strike or not. Their guard is slightly down by her interruption, but no one moves.

Azula is not quite sure if she can bend yet. She feels less like all of her body has fallen asleep at this point, but she does not know if she is fully repaired yet. If they are taking her to an execution, she should strike now. If they are taking her somewhere where she can gain pertinent information, she should not strike.

"I think it would be in your best interest to lose that baby," says the man walking towards her, the one Azula sees the other two constantly glancing towards for direction. He is the one she must take down. He steps towards her and she analyzes him closely. "We weren't even aware we had a princess to deal with in this situation, much less two."

Hesitation. She meets his gaze through his mask and she just glares.

"I don't think you have any idea what you're getting yourself into," Azula whispers.

"While we were disappointed to know you were here, I think everyone knows you've fallen a little bit from your Ba Sing Se days. Most people wrote you off when that coward took the throne while you were in a loony bin," he says smoothly and her eyes flash. He draws his sword and she does not move, quietly concealing the relief that the man holding her has loosened his grip slightly. "I'm going to count to five, and then," he says, touching the tip of the sword to her navel, "I'm going to cut that baby out of you."

Azula does not flinch, much to his displeasure.

"I'm going to count to three. There will not be a four," Azula replies with a tiny smirk.

His muscles tense with a brief fit of rage and she strikes. A single kick, right into his jaw as she breaks free of the man whose hold was slipping on her arms. He yelps in pain as he stumbles towards the floor, and Azula starts running, trying to spark a flame.

_No, no, no, _yes... and she throws a wave of blue fireballs at those pursuing her, dashing through the palace. She spins around a corner and tears a decorative table and red glass vase of dead flowers onto the floor to keep herself ahead, and she rips open the door to a passageway she thinks she is the only one aware of.

She used to hide from her father in it. And she still fits, thank Agni. She slides inside, lighting her way with a fragile cerulean flame, and shuts herself in.

Azula blinks, dust in her eyes. She has to make her decision now, clueless, running into what could be an all out war or could just be a few retired soldiers who decided to pose a very thorough assassination. They were once soldiers; Azula recognized the punch one of them threw at her when she first broke free. Army, definitely army.

_Okay, okay, okay... options..._

Option One: Hide.

Option Two: Save Zuko.

Option one is probably healthiest for herself and her baby, and will likely secure both of their lives. Option two is the insane, ludicrous idea that Azula is loath to admit is probably the one she should choose. Azula is selfish, yes, but she has no desire at all to let a Fire Lord get killed.

Azula looks down at the tiny bump on her abdomen and sighs. "I am sorry," she murmurs to her slightly protruding stomach. "I promise not to leave my bed for the rest of the week."

And she turns, starting to crawl through the small tunnel. It wraps around into one of the many gross, abandoned libraries in the palace, stuffed with forgotten scrolls and mementos from family members Azula has never met. She barely _fits _in here anymore, and the little fragile life inside of her is not making this any easier.

She makes it out, breathing in and then coughing, and then holding back bile. Slowly, she stands, creeping around the corner and examining the halls. Empty, or so it seems. She hesitantly starts to walk, not having the faintest idea where these people are targeting, nor how many of them there even are. At least six, is all Azula knows.

She starts walking, realizing how fucking out of practice she is. It sickens her to the absolute core. This is what she was trained for, this is what she _lives _for. But it all was quickly forgotten as she tried to live as a fugitive in the thick countryside of the Fire Nation.

Then she hits the ground, the sound of explosions coming to her second to the fall. She lies down for a moment, quickly pushing up her hand with a shield of flame, incinerating the furniture that decided to attack her.

Alright, well, then it's not just six men. Fantastic.

She attempts to get back onto her feet and she is knocked to the ground with yet another blast. Okay, window, window... figure out what exactly is being hit.

Slowly, she crawls, shaking from the blasts. She peeks through the nearest window, which is as inconveniently stained as it can be. There's a battle outside. A _battle_. The organization of these assailants is impressive, Azula must admit.

She swallows, ducks down from the window and continues crawling.

"I'm in my pajamas," she mutters to herself, "crawling through this palace, pregnant, to rescue my brother..."

It sounds much, much worse when she says it aloud. She thought it would sound_better _if she voiced it. Spirits was she wrong.

She just keeps moving.

* * *

><p>Mai curses as she hits the floor. At first, she is certain it is an earthquake, which is not uncommon in Caldera. Most objects are nailed to shelves in the city because of how frequently the ground decides to revolt against those living on it. But it is only when she sees the burst of flame and hears screams that she realizes something is genuinely amiss.<p>

Not an invasion; nobody has ever successfully invaded the Fire Nation. She crawls across the floor, drawing two blades placed between her knuckles. Chaos, utter chaos. The place was packed despite being a disgusting dive Mai hated being in.

Someone grabs her arm in the blinding smoke and she moves to slash their artery before she sees that it's her date.

"Through the back," Jun says, tugging her across the room and shoving her way through the confused crowds of drunks. Mai follows, although it is not her nature to do so.

They make it outside into the hot night and look around. Mai creeps behind the building, past trash cans and grotesque puddles, and peers around the corner.

"Ugh. This is just glorious," Mai groans, pinning her back to the wall. Jun follows and looks at her. "We've been having riots since the end of the war. I don't know why these people don't just give up."

Jun cocks an eyebrow. "I knew I made a good choice sticking around here for a while. The riots in the Earth Kingdom are a bit less _explosive_."

"This one is a little more intense than usual. They're usually twice as boring and pointless," Mai admits dryly with a shrug. Jun smirks faintly at how she still seems to look bored while the streets are going up in violent flames. It's hot. "It's not like they do anything but make everyone late for work in the morning."

"So, what's our plan?"

"You don't strike me as a girl with a plan."

"Neither do you."

They both know what that means.

* * *

><p>Ty Lee is alarmed when the door opens again, and her heart starts pounding.<p>

_Please let that be Azula coming back. Please let this be a joke. Oh, let it be some dumb scheme._

She flexes her fingers. It's been too long and they were not anticipating this. Not anticipating _her_. Slowly, she pretends to slump, useless, against the damp wall.

Men in masks, three, as usual.

One reaches for her and she jams her thumb into his shoulder. He collapses, stunned, compressed by his own body and feeling suffocated by his mask. She takes down the next two just as easily, smiling as she bounds up the stairs.

Now all she has to do is find Azula, and hopefully Zuko. The chaos is more than she is used to, much, much more than she is used to. Her sleepy little island has nothing on the Fire Nation riled up.

She starts to run, hiding behind cover when she can, wondering where they would have taken Azula.

Because, of course, just as they were about to sort out a good decade's worth of feelings, they were thrust into an attempted coup.

This just seems to be how it _is _for Ty Lee.

Heart hammering viciously inside of her chest, she rushes through the palace, pushing open doors with no fear of what will find her, but with growing horror of what she might find.


End file.
